lowercase thought.

Who gave Mike Miller (me, not the uppercase guy in Annapolis) the right to determine whether 5 million other Marylanders can gamble, and what they can gamble on? I'm all in favor of a referendum on slots. If there's a statewide referendum on slots, it would currently pass according to polls along the lines of 60-40. People are already voting with their pocketbooks (reference again that sign on I-95).

Yes, the sticky issue becomes putting them in someone's "backyard". Of course, when you tell the local residents in Park Heights that 5% of the take on the slots machines will be given to the City of Baltimore in addition to all of the money the State takes and you relay how many new jobs will be created, it seems to ease any of the fears. Enough so that Pimlico's state district representatives have consistently supported slots with no real fear of backlash. Remember, Pimlico is one of the few businesses that actually employ a good number of people in that area, and at this point another 50 jobs at the track for local residents would be a relative economic boom.

While we're at it, let's discuss the profitability to the State of Maryland and its residents of professional sports teams. While some may enjoy some hardball at Camden Yards, there are plenty of people who much rather a day at the track (especially Preakness) and can't stand a three-hour 2-to-1 pitch-a-thon. Those people may bitch and complain that the Maryland Stadium Authority has shelled out countless millions to subsidize the O's and Ravens being in Baltimore, but the fact remains that the public supports the expenditure in order to have those teams here. By the way, we support those expenditures through--you guessed it--legalized gambling (a.k.a. The Maryland Lottery. Let Yourself Play!)

I'd also argue that the Preakness has the same if not a greater local economic impact on the City of Baltimore than an entire season of either the Orioles or Ravens. According to DBED, the Preakness itself and is worth $60 million in business locally. Add to that the fact that it's the single most significant opportunity Maryland has to remind people in California and elsewhere that we actually are a state (with a State Capital and all), and the impact upon our tourism industry is almost immeasurable. A recent Daily Record article compared the fact that Maryland gets exponentially more free publicity out of the Preakness on ESPN than it did out of hosting the Miss USA pageant this year. ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball may have Morgan and Miller give about a minute's worth of comments about a post-commercial break picture of the Inner Harbor, but that's about it. ESPN's "Breakfast at the Preakness" features about a half-hour worth of spots about Maryland, Baltimore, and all things jiggy therein (I believe they even mentioned Lexington Market this year).

So no, we don't *need* slots and we don't *need* the Preakness just like we don't *need* the Orioles or Ravens either. But do you like the sound of the Nashville Orioles and Las Vegas Ravens? Me neither.

Disclaimer: I currently work for a firm who has represented the Maryland Jockey Club. And yes, my position was the same before I took this job, much to the chagrin of many fellow Democratic activists.

Rebeccah Ramey. Who's that, you ask? She's a recent graduate of Ashland University, and currently a Staff Assistant to the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution. But more importantly, Rebeccah Ramey is someone who so perfectly puts a voice to conservative thought that her words are prominently featured as by Ashland U.'s Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs.

Her current article, "I Don’t Want Mr. Rogers, I Want John Bolton", is possibly the greatest political come-back flung at those of us who oppose Mr. Bolton's nomination. Here's a snippet:

Secretary Bolton was also accused of “improperly manipulating intelligence” while holding the position as under secretary of state (in which he has received three Senate confirmations). The reason I didn’t mention this one at first, is because it is the only accusation that has been absolutely proven to be completely and utterly false.

First off, I didn't know that you could get a degree from, much less be published by a reputable institution of higher education in this country if you used such absolutely, completely and utterly terrible language skills. Second, it might be tought to get all of the facts about Bolton if you're too busy ogling at Condi Rice's dominatrix outfit. Third, Ramey never mentions in the rest of her rant exactly how the accusations of intelligence manipulation were supposedly "proven false". Apparently she just assumes that you watch Fox News as well.

In case anyone doubted Ramey's view of Democrats, check this out from her critique of Condi's fashion-sense:

The feedback that I’ve received from my male co-workers, who have made their careers on Capitol Hill with the current majority party, have unanimously voiced that, "She looked amazing—beautiful, powerful and serious." I’m sure they were also thinking "And I’m glad she’s on our side and not the side of the bad guys."

Bad guys, eh? Yet we wonder why bipartisanship has left Washington when Committee staffers are so friendly towards the other side of the aisle...

Yes, I know that Rebeccah Ramey isn't the end-all-be-all of what's wrong with Ohio, but she's certainly a symptom. The simple fact that her treatise passes for a good opinion piece by alumnae at an American university (despite their conservative bias) is blatant evidence that it's not education our youth are receiving at far-right schools like Ashland, but rather ideological affirmation and indoctrination.

Maybe I should check out a Bob Jones U. senior thesis or two.

Today's email from the Martin O'Malley campaign touts an article in today's WSJ on rising housing prices and increased investment thereof as proof that Marty's done a great job for the City of Baltimore.

Well, if you actually read the article, it does a pretty good job at showing the Baltimore housing boom for what it is--an effect of the skyrocketing prices in the D.C. area. While O'Malley would like you to think that folks are moving into Bawlmur because the violent crime rate has gone down, that simply isn't the case. Baltimore still has one of the top-5 murder rates in the nation at 44 per 100k (as noted in the article), and drug use and STD rates are still ridiculously high. In fact, it is these depressing figures that has kept the Baltimore City real estate market reasonable while suburbs such as Columbia, Ellicott City and Elkridge have ballooned.

If the greatest accomplishment that our mayor can point to is housing prices rising at a similar rate to the rest of Maryland, then I think it's safe to say that he's pulling at straws in order to combat the Ehrlich strategy of "Tie O'Malley to Baltimore City". I don't think a message of, "I decreased violent crime in Baltimore" is going to play in Purple counties like Anne Arundel, Howard and Baltimore County when they still see the City with the highest murder rate nationwide. The same fear soccer moms have of driving through Park Heights in their minivan will become associated with O'Malley if the GOP has anything to do about it--and they do.

Once again as in the Steffen saga, the guy who makes out on all of this is Mont. Co. Exec. Doug Duncan. In fact, I was at a board meeting of a local organization Monday night at which numerous City residents spoke of how much they liked Duncan. It makes me wonder whether or not O'Malley can hold as much of his Baltimore City base as he's banking on.

Update: Has anyone noticed that the title of O'Malley's site says, "Welcome to Matin O'Malley's website"? Oy.

Steve Clemons has Sen. Voinovich's letter in PDF here. Great stuff.

Makes me wonder if maybe there are vestiges of common sense over on that side of the aisle.

In the wake of the Bush Administration's stringing-up of Newsweek over their one-liner on flushing a Koran, here's a great piece which goes to the heart of the matter.

Pat Tillman's family is pissed, and rightfully so. Their son was killed in combat by friendly fire, yet the Army lied to the family in order to ratchet up the patriotism of football fans with a story of how Tillman supposedly led a charge up an enemy-held hill and was shot by Islamic militants in doing so. In fact, Tillman was shot and killed by his own comrades who mistook him for an enemy.

Does anyone remember how Jessica Lynch's story was fudged in order to spark nationalist fervor? I do. And Tillman's story is just another episode.

So to those who like to point at the Mainstream Media and yell, "Army-haters!", I'd say this: Without a critical media, we'd still believe that PFC Lynch's injuries were due to Iraqi thugs beating on the defenseless young woman, and that Taliban fighters shot Pat Tillman. Apparently, so might their families.

Today's article in the Baltimore Sun reports that Melinda O'Malley, the Mayor's sister-in-law and a Maryland Insurance Administration attorney, was targeted in a Joe Steffen e-mail for removal. This e-mail inquiring as to the ability to "move" her from her job was sent while Mrs. O'Malley was on--prepare yourself--maternity leave. That's gall. It's also way outside the bounds of what we consider acceptable political activity.

Blair Lee's piece in The Gazette last week decried "Rumorgate" (as he calls it) as "the most sensationalized, over-reported news story in Maryland politics" and "news manipulation to sway views and votes". Note to Mr. Lee: if a story about a dirty-trickster doing his political deeds on taxpayer time isn't worth coverage, then perhaps you've become blind to your own bias. Maybe that's why he's on WBAL.

Note that in his piece, Lee certainly doesn't decry the reporting of Ehrlich's MD4BUSH blame-game. If anything has gotten too much coverage, it's the nearly without-evidence claim that a Democratic operative under direct orders from the state party is behind baiting Steffen into his boasts on FreeRepublic. Unless MD4BUSH is a government employee using taxpayer-bought computers, who cares? There's no evidence that MD4BUSH has done anything wrong other than outsmarting a dim-witted operative who was too full of himself to keep his mouth shut. If I could sucker a Republican trickster into outing himself in a similar fashion, you're damn right I'd do it. And don't think there aren't Republicans trying the same thing on Democrats.

So here's a tip Mr. Lee--keep your self-righteousness to yourself. Your bitching about the media's bias while simultaneously perpetuating it is hypocrisy at its greatest.